Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Blackthorne]

I've received a couple of offers from GnB schools, but I'm not familiar with the actual teaching methods that these schools use. I understand that they're part of a chain, so I would imagine they would all use the same basic teaching methods, with maybe a little variation thrown in.

Does anyone have any recent experience working at a GnB? Do they use a computer/multimedia/internet setup similar to the Little Fox chain? What duties do foreign teachers have, other than teaching in the classroom? For example:

- Monthly Tests
- Student Evaluations
- Student Recordings (teacher listens to recordings that students make on the school website, then writes a short response with some suggestions/corrections)
- Student Journals (teacher reads and corrects short journal entries that students make on the school website)
- Etc.

I'm looking for a non-chain school, but there are so many jobs with chain schools nowadays.

[lifeinkorea]

Location is more of a determining factor. The closer you get to Seoul or other bigger cities, the more strict chain schools are. The further out, the more relaxed and better they are. I worked at a GnB near Andong, and they let me do whatever I wanted. We used both GnB books (which were terrible and not full of enough content) or the usual kids books similar to Let's Go.

I doubt you will have computer aided material. That stuff will probably be for the kids to use at home if the parents buy a CD packet.

[Blackthorne]

The location being a factor is interesting. Thanks for the info.

[BoholDiver]

Many GnB schools are simply franchises that someone paid to get the sign and material. The name of the school is famous and somewhat decent reputation but in truth, their material and pedagogy are one of the worst I have ever seen.

It comes down to the director. Like the poster above, if the school is making money and the boss gives you some autonomy, it is probably a good place to work.

[busanliving]

At mine I have to use the books, to the degree they have to be filled in so the parents are happy, as long as this done I can do what I like in the classroom, my director knows I don't waste the time playing UNO and trusts me to teach so that is a big part of this. The students are supposed to do the speaking practice with me, the grammar side with the Korean teacher and then computer study. If your school is somewhere which sticks rigidly to the books then teaching would be very boring at a gnb, it's all using the thought unit which is listen and repeat.

[Blackthorne]

Sounds like a sweet deal. I was under the impression GnB was similar to Little Fox schools (which follow a strict curriculum with little if any room to improvise).

With so many of them in Korea, the chances of ending up at a GnB are pretty good.